The Institut de France and the fondation SUEZ launch a call for open innovation projects to support developing countries

The “Access to Essential Services” Award (access to water, sanitation and waste management services) and the “Social Entrepreneurship” Award (entrepreneurial approach to develop social and environmental progress), both of an amount of 50,000 euros, support projects that meet the criteria set by the Institut de France and the Fondation SUEZ. The jury pays particular attention to the project’s durability, its potential for replicability in other regions, and its capacity to benefit the largest number of people.

Candidates have until December 15th to check details at www.prix-initiatives.com and send their applications to: prix.initiatives@suez.com and prix@institutdefrance.fr.

A selection of previous years’ winners

Dar Si Hmad, winner of the “Access to Essential Services” Award in 2018

Founded in 2010, Dar Si Hmad association helps low incomes communities in Morocco. It won the 2018 “Access to Essential Services” Award for its project to collect fog water using the innovative “Cloud Fishers” technology.

Extremely fine meshes are used to collect, store and filter water droplets contained in cloud and fog: “the SUEZ-Institut de France Award has enabled us to supply drinking water to three more villages in the arid villages of southwestern Morocco using the Cloud Fishers process,” the association says.

C+ Propre-Coliba, winner of the “Social Entrepreneurship” Award in 2018

C+ Propre-Coliba is an Ivory Coast startup that offers a web and mobile application to encourage recycling of plastic waste. The residents of Abidjan can use the app to order bags for sorting and arrange collection of their sorted plastic waste. The app offers Gift vouchers to rewards the action of sorting and recycling. Winner of the 2018 “Social Entrepreneurship” Award, the startup has continued to develop and has moved up a gear by recruiting fifteen new pre-collectors of waste and by extending its operational coverage.

Rongead and Cefrepade, winners of the “Access to Essential Services” Award in 2016

Winners of the 2016 “Access to Essential Services” Award, the two associations Rongead and Cefrepade developed a project to recover energy from cashew nut shells using a pyrolysis reactor. The process produces fuel bricks that can be used by local inhabitants instead of wood charcoal from threatened and unmanaged forests.

The SUEZ-Institut de France Award has helped Rongead extend its operations to Burkina Faso, where it recovers shea waste. On the back of the success of the cashew nut shell recovery process, a new project was launched in Ivory Coast: Agrovalor recovers waste from shea butter production and from the cassava semolina meal production process.

Solidarité Technologique, winner of the “Social Entrepreneurship” Award in 2016

The association Solidarité Technologique, winner of the 2016 “Social Entrepreneurship” Award, aims at supporting social integration of young people through training programmes in computer maintenance and secretarial skills provided by Solidarité Technologique’s professional training centre. The association also recovers waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).

The SUEZ-Institut de France Award has enabled the association to intensify and expand its waste collection and recycling operations. In 2018, the Yaoundé collection centre was expanded and a new collection point was set up. Volumes of waste collected have increased from 50 to 5,000 tons of WEEE treated every year.